Patrick Somerville on Being Panned and Misread, Teju Cole on Timbuktu Destruction, and More

Every day Poets & Writers Magazine scans the headlines—from publishing reports to academic announcements to literary dispatches—for all the news that creative writers need to know. Here are today's stories:

In light of VIDA's "The Count," and author Jennifer Weiner (among others) spotlighting gender inequality within the world of leading magazine and newspaper book coverage, the Boston Phoenix focuses on literature reviewed on National Public Radio, and says the problem is "Far worse."

“No,” I said. “It does not say soggy.” “It says soggy,” she repeated. “It does say soggy.” Novelist Patrick Somerville writes of the experience of having his novel This Bright River panned by Janet Maslin, then part of the review retracted (and also, one of his novel's characters receives an actual email from a New York Times editor). (Salon)